I’m a long-time Player, but my time has been limited and I have had to pick and choose what things I explore in any given expansion. In Midnight, I decided I have time to level a Haranir. I’ve never leveled-from-zero an alt outside of Vanilla. So this was going to be a new experience.
I wasn’t impressed with the initial intro, but it wasn’t horrible either. There’s very little exposure to Haranir culture, but some, in the starting area. I found no problem finding quests and doing them. I can’t speak to learning to use the interface and powers because, as I said, I am a very long-time player.
THEN the game dumps you in front of Chromie and you are told to choose a leveling expansion. I chose Legion because I’d only ever nearly finished a Priest class hall, and wanted to do a different class hall to the finish. This time, I mostly ignored the Legion storyline because my Main had done it all the way through heroic raids back in the first incarnation of the expansion. I used Heirloom gear, because it was very clear early on that the Midnight “squish” had rendered all Legion drops unuseable. They are all in L-teens.. and, at this point, working off and on since I earned my Haranir, I’ve leveled her to L71. Still not done because I’m stuck with one of the other problems that doesn’t happen when you level in an new expansion: the mobs are always your level. You never feel like you get better. And once you pass the Heirloom gear’s level max, you definitely get worse and worse. (Plus You’ve still been wearing those early drop wrists, belt, etc., that don’t come in Heirloom, all this time as well.) Checking what’s available in crafted, at L71, your best bet is Shadowlands gear. And, unless you decided to emphasize gold farming (which I do not), you’ve only got a few thousand gold (I’m at 1649 gp) and that won’t buy you what you need on the auction house. I also learned that gear you’ve saved over the years for your warband, doesn’t always accurately reflect the Midnight “squish” until you send it to your new character - and then it’s clear that there’s now a mis-match between I-level and the character-level. You’ll have “out grown” most of it before you are even allowed to put it on. Blizz really should THINK more about what “squishing” does to past expansions.
So.. at L71, you’re (1) seriously undergeared, (2) always up against opponents at or close to your level, (3) low on gold because most quests you’ve done did not give significant gold because it’s an old exp (My Haranir has 1649 gp, 1K of which she took from the Warband bank), (4) low on Order Resources (at 8k, I still need another 2K to finish building the Order Hall, and I’ve spent those only on missions and Hall), (5) get none of the special benefits of the Legendaries you’ve gotten (even if they weren’t L11 to your L71), (6) you’re STILL not done even though you’ve spent far more levels in this Legion than anyone spent in the first iteration, AND, I should have mentioned this before, (6) the very first (and only) mission you are offerred when you arrive in Dalaran puts you against L?? caimans.
I’d be surprised if any New Player would even get past that “introduction”. Much less run into all those other problems.
I abandoned that first mission and accepted the 2nd which started my whole Order questing. But I don’t think a New Player would stick around long enough to discover that there’d be a 2nd mission. (I really did check all of Dalaran to see if there was anything other than the Pet Store mission, before I set off on that one - to intense disappointment.)
I just don’t see how Blizzard intends to get and retain new players.
They’re not even given the option, via Chromie, to play the Vanilla experience. I know, I know. Blizzard has that whole other Classic game for that, BUT, Blizz’ advertising doesn’t tell you that if you’re a beginner you shouldn’t play Retail. After all, Retail has all the new, shiney stuff. Right?
Personally, I’d not use the term “garbage”. But I imagine that “intensely disappointing” fits.
I’ve stuck it out because I am a 20-year veteran of this game, but I’m still not sure I’ll meet my goal because, despite checking the Internet and watching videos, I’m simply not surviving some of the fights I need to get through in order to finish the campaign line I’ve chosen. I’ll be very disappointed if my Main has to go and buy Shadowlands + gear to send to my Haranir. It’s bad enough knowing that I used Heirloom gear to which a Brand New Player would not have access. I even had to max that out, which none of my alts have ever before needed to do.
I don’t know if the other choices Chromie offers are as bad as Legion, but this just isn’t the way I’d want to introduce a brand new player to WOW.